Monique Morelli - Seghers - Forbidden shores

Original Title: "Rives défendues"
Text: Pierre Seghers
Year: 1970

Along the forbidden shores
Along the astounded loves
Along the time I've lost
You, You my elusive love
Nothing more than a trace in the sand
Never seen, never heard

I took solitary paths
Which turned around the earth
There, I've learned to keep quiet for a long time
You, you were shouting in my chest
A lost shout of wildfowl
Where my mysteries were tearing one another apart

I've held secret like a fire
Love which is written with chalk
On the walls and in the forests
You, You were pursuing me endlessly
Like my shadow, like my distress
Like a reflection on the marsh

Over me, sometimes, you leaned
In your gaze a swath
Of tears, of exchanged tears
You, you were seeing me like a cloud
Vanishing in the bottom of the beaches
Annihilating myself in my dive

So leaving one another
We were going beyond time
To die where the wind is waiting for us
You, you were soon nothing more than a gesture
Than a mirage or what's left of it
And yet, I'll be waiting for you for a long time.

Yves Montand - Jacques Prévert - Children who love one another

Text: Jacques Prévert
Music: Joseph Kosma
Year: 1946
It was original written for the movie 'Les Portes de la Nuit'/"Gates of the night" with Yves Montand as main actor.

The children who love one another
Kiss, standing up, against the doors of the night
And the passers-by are pointing their fingers at them
But the children who love one another
Are not present for anyone

And it's only their shadow
Which trembles in the night
Exciting the rage of the passers-by
Their rage, their contempt, their laugh and their envy
The children who love one another
Are not there for anyone

They are elsewhere way further than the night
Way higher than the day
In the blinding light of their first love

Mouloudji's version:

Extract from the movie "Gates of the Night"
:

Monique Morelli - Aragon - Santa Espina

Text: Louis Aragon
Year: 1970
This poem is about a catalan Sardane, Santa Espina (Holy Thorn), which had been outlawed by the dictatures of Rivera and Franco.

I remember a tune that could not be heard without the heart beating
And the blood being on fire
Without the fire starting again like an heart under the ash
And we finally knew why the sky is blue

I remember a tune alike to the air from the open sea
A tune alike to the shout of the migrating birds
A tune of which the sob seems to carry in the margin
The revenge of the seas on their tamers

I remember a tune which we whistled in the shadow
During the times without sun, nor errant knights
When childhood was crying and in the catacombs
A pure people was dreaming of the death of tyrants

He was carrying in its name the holy thorns
Which gives, at the forehead of a god, his colored tears
And the song in the flesh, like an anchored smallboat
Revived his wound and reopened his pain

Noone would have dared to put words
On this tune humming all the forbidden words
The universe ravaged with ancient poxes
It was your hope and your four thursdays

I search in vain its heartbreaking sentences
But the earth only has tears of Opera left
At the memory of those murmuring waters is missing
The call from spring to spring of the tenoras

Oh Holy Thron Oh Holy Thorn resume
We were listening to you standing up in time past, remember
Who could restore your romance nowadays
Give back the voice to the singing woods which went quiet

I want to believe that there are musics still
In the mysterious heart of the country there
The mute will talk again and the paralytics
Will walk a fine day at the sound of the cobla

And we'll see fall from the forehead of the Son of Man
The crown of blood symbol of misfortune
And Man will sing loudly this time as
If life was beautiful and hawthorn in blossom

All poems written by Louis Aragon

Cora Vaucaire - We think of you Paris

Original Title: "On pense à toi Paris"
Year: 1959

Dream seller and love girl
Every Manon's from the America's
Every Carmen's from Singapore
Have moments of melancholy

Adventurers from South to North
Sailors, settlers or gold diggers
Also have moments of blues
And in the whole world
Some evening

We think of you,
of you Paris
When we are far away
When we are bored
When think of you
Like a friend
To whom we can tell our whole life
When we are alone
When all is grey
When things are going badly
From bad to worse
We think of you,
of you Paris
And something immediately
Smiles at you

I recollect the corner of a street
A small bistrot
In the 18th district
And a coalmanv very moustached
Who served us cream with coffee
We met there twice a day
And were telling love words to one another
Since that time in my heart
Paris, for me, is happiness

I think of you,
of you Paris
When I'm far away
When I get bored
I think of you
Like of a friend
To whom I can tell my whole life
When we are alone
When all is grey
When things are going badly
From bad to worse
We think of you,
of you Paris
Like to the love
Which we never forget

Mouloudji - One day you will see

Original Title: "Un jour, tu verras"
Music: George Van Parys
Year: 1954

One day, you'll see, we'll meet
Somewhere, anywhere, guided by chance
We'll look at each other and smile at one another
And, hand in hand, will walk the streets
Time passes so fast, the evening will hide our hearts well
Those two thieves who keep their happiness
Then we'll reach a great square
Where the cobbles would be sweet to our grey souls
There would be a ball there, very poor, very common
Under a sky full of fog and melancholy
A blind man would play some barrel organ
That tune would be the most beautiful, the nicest to us

Then I would invite you, I'd take you by the waist
We'd dance quietly far from the town people
We'd dance love, eyes at the bottom of the eyes
Toward an end of the world, toward a deep night

One day, you'll see, we'll meet
Somewhere, anywhere, guided by chance
We'll look at each other and smile at one another
And, hand in hand, will walk the streets

Live version:

Léo Ferré - The sad song

Original Title: "La chanson triste"
Year: 1955

When sorrow knocks on your closed door
Give it fire for the sake of God
If your flame is dead and everything is resting
It'll go away I have not done better
If your flame is dead and everything is resting
It'll go away I have not done better

Flowers of my life were white roses
I've given them to all my friends
to pluck their petals under 4 planks
I'd have done better to decorate my life with them
to pluck their petals under 4 planks
I'd have done better to decorate my life with them

I had clothes made from clouds
I had hair like flags
And my well-behaved mane was floating to the wind
Then I have lost it all, there was nothing left but the skin
And my well-behaved mane was floating to the wind
Then I have lost it all, there was nothing left but the skin

I went away under ten feet of clay
Stuck face to face by a sky of wood
And telling my verses to my docile verses
Who would have rhymed me differently than I did
And telling my verses to my docile verses
Who would have rhymed me differently than I did

When sorrow knocks on your closed door
Give it fire for the sake of God
And the last rose would flare up
Which I'd go and pick up between two farewells
And the last rose would flare up
Which I'd go and pick up between two farewells

Alain Barrière - She was so pretty

Original Title: "Elle était si jolie"
Year: 1963 (France's Eurovision song)

She was so pretty that I did not dare loving her
She was so pretty I can't forget her
She was too pretty when the wind was taking her away
She was feeling, delighted, and the wind was telling me

She is way too pretty and you I know you
Love her a whole lifetime you will never be able to
Yes but she is gone, it's stupid but it's true
She was pretty, I will never forget

Today, autumn is here and I often cry
Today, autumn is here, how far the spring is
In the park where shiver the leaves under the ill wind
Her dress twirls then she disappears

She was so pretty that I did not dare loving her
She was so pretty I can't forget her
She was too pretty when the wind was taking her away
She was so pretty I will never forget